


Mistress of Marlborough Mills

by vix_spes



Category: North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell | UK TV
Genre: Christmas, Domestic, F/M, Gift Fic, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-15 13:33:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3449015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vix_spes/pseuds/vix_spes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Margaret ponders the twists and turns her life has taken since moving to Milton.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mistress of Marlborough Mills

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pers/gifts).



Walking through the snow from the area in which the Higgins family lived back towards Marlborough Mills, Margaret couldn’t help but ponder just how much her life had changed since she had moved to Milton. For a start, she was no longer Margaret Hale but was now Mrs Margaret Thornton and had been for nearly three months. When she first moved to Milton and met Mr Thornton she had never been able to envision them being friends let alone spouses but oh how things changed and she could indeed now call John Thornton her husband.

Things had moved swiftly since their meeting on the train platform in late spring/early summer. She had left Henry Lennox on the London-bound train and returned to Milton with John. He had proposed several days later, and this time Margaret had accepted without hesitation. Neither of them had seen the point of a long engagement, particularly as Margaret was going to have to return to London temporarily, and had settled upon late September as the date for the wedding.

It had been more than a little bittersweet as Margaret was marrying in the church where she had buried both her parents and Frederick couldn’t be there but the rest of her family had travelled up from London so she had at least Edith at her side. Margaret had been quite happy to forgo a honeymoon in favour of getting Marlborough Mills back to what it had been but John had been insistent. Still, they had managed to come to a compromise and, rather than having the grand European tour that Edith and Fanny had had, they had settled for several days in the Lake District on the proviso that John would be allowed to take her abroad once things at the mill were more settled.

It hadn’t been easy. Far from it. Hannah Thornton was a formidable matriarch and was far too used to being the only Mrs Thornton. She hadn’t taken well to the fact that her beloved son was going to be marrying Margaret. Mrs Thornton may have approved of the fact that Marlborough Mills was once again a working mill but that didn’t mean that she approved that Margaret had not only made it happen but that Margaret was marrying into the Thornton family. Margaret was convinced that the relationship between herself and her mother-in-law would never be without its tensions but she was determined to keep things civil, if only for her husband’s sake. At least Fanny was married and no longer living with them; Margaret was fairly certain that living in the same house as Fanny would have proved impossible.

Having grown used to helping Dixon with the household chores, Margaret had been unable to slip back into a life of idleness. She might not know much about mills but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be useful. She took food baskets to the families of workers from the mill if necessary and tried not to interfere too much with the running of the mill for fear of inciting the wrath of her mother-in-law. Taking her lead from Nicholas Higgins and her husband, Margaret had expanded upon the idea of communal dining and started a small school attached to the mill courtyard that, at the moment, consisted of just one classroom. She and some of the older girls who weren’t suited to mill work looked after and taught some of the younger children so that both parents could work on the mill floor. Margaret had always enjoyed looking after Sholto and this was no different. If anything it was making her broody for children of her own. There was still time for that though; after all, they had only been married for three months. Although, if her appointment with the doctor went as she thought it would then she had the perfect early Christmas present for John.

Walking into the main courtyard of the mill, Margaret headed straight for the building that served as a dining hall, accepting the food that Mary handed her and heading for where her husband sat with Nicholas Higgins. Despite his initial scepticism, John had been unable to deny that Higgins’ idea had been a success and, in tandem with the wheels that had been installed and the schoolroom, productivity at Marlborough Mills was now outstripping both Hamper’s and Slickson’s. Using her husband’s shoulder to balance, Margaret slid into the seat and, after exchanging greetings with Nicholas and accepting a kiss to the cheek from her husband, settled in to listen absentmindedly, pre-occupied by the upcoming appointment.

Several hours later, Margaret was unsurprised to hear the sound of her husband taking the stairs two at a time in his haste to reach her. Tearing her gaze away from the Christmas tree in the corner of the room and the thought that maybe next year they shouldn’t decorate it with candles, she turned towards the door just as John reached the top of the stairs. As he burst through the door and crossed the room, worry and love warring for dominance on his face, Margaret wondered how she had ever thought him to be cold. She allowed him to cradle her face in his hands, tilting it up so that he could see her clearly.

“Margaret! Are you alright? I saw Doctor Donaldson leaving and mother said he was here for you not her. What’s happened? You seemed fine at lunch.”

“I am perfectly well John, I simply called for him as a precaution.”

“So you are not ill? What did Doctor Donaldson say?”

“I am not ill as such. I’m pregnant, John. Next Christmas we will be parents.”

“You’re pregnant?” John’s disbelief was visible before it melted away into amazement. “We’re going to have a baby.”

Margaret couldn’t help but squeal as she was picked up off her feet and spun around in a circle, the action making her dizzy. She kept her arms wrapped around John’s neck as she was set down and smiled up at him, the smile being returned wholeheartedly. Her eyes slid shut as he kissed her and there was a hint of a pout on her lips when he pulled away.

“Every time I think I can’t be happier, you do something that changes that.” John’s words were soft but there was no denying how much he meant them.

Just as he was leaning in to kiss Margaret again, the voice of Hannah Thornton drifted over to them from the doorway. “John? Margaret? What’s all this commotion about?”

They turned to face her, John’s arm wrapping around Margaret’s waist with a smile. “Mother, we’ve got some news for you.”


End file.
